


two steps closer to you

by dogsbreath



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Best Friends to Lovers, Confused Ricky Bowen, Happy Ending, M/M, Ricky has abandonment issues, Slightly angsty??, oblivious big red, supportive carlos rodriguez, supportive nini salazar-roberts, this is literally just rickys journey as he figures out he loves red but simplified
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-19 06:35:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22840015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogsbreath/pseuds/dogsbreath
Summary: or, the one where ricky breaks up with nini and falls in love with red because of his parents.
Relationships: Big Red & Ricky Bowen (HSM: The Series), Big Red/Ricky Bowen (HSM: The Series)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 36





	two steps closer to you

**Author's Note:**

> uhh this is edited as best as i could so please excuse typos and all that. i hope you enjoy it!!

ricky loves red. he loves him with all he has in him, from the tip of his fingers to the bottom of his feet, red is the one for ricky. 

it’s just a little sad that ricky hasn’t figured it out yet.

red doesn’t know, he’s oblivious on purpose, solely because he’d rather pretend he didn’t see the way ricky was looking at him, or didn’t want to look too far into it, to protect his own heart.

but nini? nini knew within the first week of the musical. once upon a time, maybe before their breakup allowed ricky to feel for red in a way he hadn’t before, ricky used to laugh with and look at her like that. and yeah, it hurt, but she was mostly glad ricky finally found the right one. he doesn’t know. she knows he doesn’t know. because he’s still trying to get back with her, even if he’s confused about things.

she thinks maybe it’s because his parents just didn’t work. they fooled themselves into thinking they did, but the love, the i love you’s, the contentment and comfort and everything that makes a couple who’s truly in love with one another, that was never there. ricky has never witnessed it, had never seen his parents look at each other the way he sometimes found himself looking at red. and then they met nini, and ricky's mom started leaving for chicago for longer and longer

in some ways, he used nini to replace the absence of his mom. she became the sole female figure in rickys life. she made sure he ate, made sure he was okay, she was a great friend. and maybe it was that, the “friend” part of it. it seemed wrong, she wasn’t his immediate family, could leave at any time without a look back. so he started dating her, in hopes maybe she’d stay if she had the choice. it never occurred to him that their relationship was as empty in the romantic love as his parents had been.

and then she said she loved him, and ricky froze. he didn’t know what to do, he knew he couldn’t say it back. he didn’t know why, because he knew if he did it’d make everything so much easier, but he couldn’t form the words, because he’d never seen or heard his father or his mother say it as easily as nini had said it. so he panicked. broke up with her. that’s not to say he didn’t love nini. he knew he did, just not the way she loved him.

and then she went to camp, and his mom left again. his dad was honestly gross when left to his own devices, even if he tried to take care of ricky. so ricky spent his time with red, more and more. and he’d find himself staring at red the way he’d caught nini staring at him, and he learned a lot of new things about himself. like the fact that he loved it when red ranted, it calmed him in a way nothing had ever. he liked the silence they had when they were both into their games or just sitting on their phones sending each other memes. it was familiar, it was what he should’ve felt with nini. but he didn’t. it took him a long time, which, when he looks back, ricky thinks it’s okay, because red was it for ricky, and ricky did the right thing taking time to figure that out.

in the end, it was carlos he spilled his guts to, carlos who helped kickstart him in the right direction. ricky took red out on a date, much to reds shock, and ricky had a good time. it was nini he spoke to about it afterwards, and it was nini who supported him. and red and ricky kept going on dates, and ricky held his hand, and ricky looked so fucking in love with red, miss jenn had to tell him to make his move.

so he did, on their last rehearsal for the musical, he kissed red. and it was so worth the wait, to feel the way red relaxed and kissed him back. “i love you,” he whispered. and red grinned, “i love you too,” he said just as quietly.

and days later, when his mom came home to see his show, he looked at his parents, and he wondered how they did it. how they stayed so unhappy. because ricky did unhappy, and it nearly tore both him and nini’s relationship to shreds. he wondered what he’d be like if his parents loved each other the way he and red did, and found he didn’t want to know, because that would mean this would’ve turned out different, and he doesn’t want to imagine a world where red was anything but his boyfriend.


End file.
